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LAX89LA176 · Beech 35

30 Apr 1989 · SIERRAVILLE, CA, United States

Beech 35 · Accident: loss of control in flight during landing

From 005 · Davis, CA to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
LAX89LA176
Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
Accident
InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
Completed
API-reported fatalities
0 · all aircraft and ground
Ground fatalities
0
OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
General aviation
WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
Visual Meteorological Cond

Beech 35

Aircraft type
Beechcraft 35
Category
Airplane
RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
N3169V
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From 005 · Davis, CATo not recorded
Aircraft age
Not recorded
Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
Part 91: General Aviation
Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
Landing · aborted
First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
Loss of control in flight
Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
Stall
DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
Destroyed

Cause areas

  • Pilot in command › Proper climb rate, not attained
  • Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
  • Pilot in command › Wrong runway, selected

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE PILOT STATED THAT THE WINDS WERE OUT OF 210 DEGREES AT 12 KTS. A WITNESS OBSERVED THE AIRCRAFT APPROACHING RUNWAY 03 LOW AND FAST. SHE STATED THAT THE MAIN GEAR HAD JUST TOUCHED DOWN ON THE RUNWAY WHEN A GUST OF WIND FROM THE RIGHT LIFTED THE RIGHT WING. THE PILOT PULLED THE NOSE UP IN WHAT APPEARED TO BE A GO AROUND, HOWEVER, THE WING STALLED AND CONTACTED THE RUNWAY. THE PILOT REPORTED ENCOUNTERING A SEVERE DOWNDRAFT WHILE ON FINAL APPROACH, ADDING FULL POWER AND ENCOUNTERING ANOTHER DOWNDRAFT BEFORE COLLIDING WITH THE RUNWAY.

Probable cause

THE PILOT'S ATTEMPT TO LAND DOWNWIND ON THE RUNWAY AND THE INABILITY TO ATTAIN A CLIMB AFTER ABORTING THE LANDING WHICH RESULTED IN A STALL AND UNCONTROLLED DESCENT INTO THE GROUND.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record LAX89LA176
Event ID
20001213X28139
Case number
LAX89LA176
Dataset
historical-pre2008
Source SHA-256
89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
  • Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
  • Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
  • The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 4c960cbec691b7e6b429c327c0492604d042b94680a452e5b99cb3b6cd70d92f; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:39:20.073Z.